A little over two years after
Bradley Nowell's tragic death,
Sublime released its second posthumous album,
Stand by Your Van.
Sublime never had the chance to tour the material from
Sublime, which turned out to be their most popular album. That means that all 16 tracks on
Stand by Your Van are taken from their first two albums, before
Nowell's songwriting had truly come into its own. Nevertheless, he had several good songs on
40oz. to Freedom and
Robbin' the Hood, and by consolidating the best moments from those two relatively uneven albums, the live record offers something of a "greatest hits" of their early years. If the performances aren't that different from the studio versions -- they're simply a little rawer, a little faster, a little looser -- they're still strong and energetic, capturing the essence of the group's live show. Ultimately, that energy is what makes
Stand by Your Van the best posthumous
Sublime record to date. Nobody outside of hardcore fans needs this record, but the quality of the music is better than either the
What I Got... EP or the haphazard outtakes album
Second Hand Smoke, and that alone makes its release somewhat noteworthy. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine